Inside the deprived Cheshire town spending 93% of taxpayers' cash on social care

“This town is an absolute disgrace… all it is is takeaways, nail bars, tattoo shops,” says one Runcorn resident walking through the old town on a raining Monday afternoon. An award-winning theatre, The Brindley, is the star attraction of the Cheshire town – several locals recommend it as a place to shelter from the wet weather due to its modern and well-loved cafe, but it’s not difficult for it to take centre stage among a number of boarded up buildings and shut down shops.

In Runcorn’s defence, the local council is under huge financial pressure . Last year, Halton Council spent 93 per cent of its core funding on adult social care – and was forced to rely on £35m of exceptional financial support from central government despite making cuts and selling off assets. Meanwhile, almost half of residents living in Halton are among the 20 per cent most deprived nationally. “Halton borough is one of the most deprived boroughs in the country and experiences significant health inequalities… it has a lower healthy life expectancy than many other boroughs, which means that more people will spend longer towards the end of their life in poor health,” Age UK Mid Mersey CEO Rachel McKernan said.

Speaking from her office overlooking Church Street, McKernan suggests Halton’s high level of deprivation tallies with the significant amount it spends on adult social care , with fewer people in a position to fund their own care. “Where you’ve got so much deprivation and so few adults who can probably meet the threshold for self-funding, then that does fall on the local authority to meet their care needs,” McKernan said. “Then you do get those in the middle that only just meet the threshold for self-funding for whom it becomes a significant burden.”

Rachel McKernan, CEO of Age UK Mid Mersey said the most common queries staff have to deal with are those in relation to welfare benefits (Photo: Ian Cooper) Halton’s adult social care budget has grown significantly in recent years, rising from £53m in 2022-23 to £74.3m in 2025-26, a 40 per cent increase, a report by The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy stated. The area’s high level of deprivation shapes the support local people require from charities that signpost social care support.

In Age UK Mid Mersey’s office, the most common queries staff have to deal with are those in relation to welfare benefits , McKernan said. A lot of these enquiries are about attendance allowance, a benefit for people of state pension age or older to help with personal care costs. One woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, held back tears as she spoke of her experience with self-funded social care for her late husband, who had Alzheimer’s .

The pensioner said she had paid £900 per week for two weeks’ respite care after her husband, who was 82 at the time, had an accident at home. “It was forced on me that he had to go into respite care,” she said. “It wasn’t my decision.” She added that she supports plans for a National Care Service, which the Prime Minister has pledged will provide free personal care for older people, because she thinks it could help people like her who saved up money to “enjoy” in retirement, but who had to use it on such services instead.

“I really thought I was going to lose the house,” she said. As it struggles with the demands of funding social care, Halton Borough Council increased council tax by 4.99 per cent this year, after a larger rise of 7.99 per cent was denied by the Government. The local authority was also allocated around £16m less via the Government’s Fair Funding Review than it had anticipated. Local resident Maureen Burgess, who is retired, said she can accept the council tax rise if it is helping people in the area, but called on central government to do more to plug the financial gap in areas like Runcorn.

Maureen Burgess doesn’t begrudge council tax rises if the money is being spent responsibly to help those in need (Photo: Ian Cooper/The i Paper) “You just have to go with it,” she said. “If it’s being spent properly, responsibly, than it’s a good thing, really.” However, she added that “it would be nice to have some kind of announcement to help regional areas” in the Budget. She hopes she does not need social care support but wants it to be accessible in case.

“I just hope that it doesn’t happen. If I did need it, then I would hope that it’s available.” Others begrudge the rises as unfair when they face having to spend money they saved for later life and to pass on to their children on care instead, and see little value for money. One pensioner, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “I just don’t think it’s fair when you’ve saved and worked all your life and then somebody who hasn’t on benefits gets it for free.

“All we get done is the bins. This town is an absolute disgrace. There’s just nothing to come down here for.” Young people are a rare sight in Runcorn town centre as the rain falls – but locals suggest it’s not just because of the miserable weather. “It’s very hard for the young people to get jobs because there’s not a lot of things round about,” pensioner Carole Shaw said as she waited for a bus at the town centre bus terminal. Halton Borough Council is dealing with significant pressures on its budget, with demand for social care rising sharply (Photo: Ian Cooper) A former foster carer for 19 years, Shaw is concerned about the level of spending on services for young people in the area.

And she’s not alone. A report by the Children’s Commissioner for England published last week ranked Halton as the fifth most challenging place to be a child. It also found that despite youth services – such as youth clubs – being critical for encouraging young people away from getting involved in potentially harmful activity, Halton was one of four local authorities that reported a zero spend on youth services. Charity worker Adam Cho thinks the high spend on child social care is money well spent (Photo: Ian Cooper/The i Paper) The council did, however, spend 42 per cent spent on child social care, including fostering services, in 2025-26.

However, Adam Cho, regional manager for P3 Charity’s regional young people and family services, said spending money through child social care is a better way of targeting the funding “because the young people are getting the support that they need when they need it in that respect”.